Posted on 08/23/2002 9:12:15 AM PDT by Texans
The public education monopoly can't stand the thought of "unqualified" parents teaching their own children.
That is why they are cracking down on home schooling, even as a new study shows that thousands of public school teachers themselves are shamefully unqualified to educate the nation's students.
In California, the state's hostile education department is tightening the screws on enterprising parents who have taken the initiative and turned their family rooms into classrooms. State Deputy Superintendent Joanne Mendoza wrote in a July 16 memo to all school employees that without official teaching credentials, these parents no longer can file required paperwork that would authorize them to home school their children.
Thus, Mendoza concludes, home-schooled children not attending public schools would be considered "truant" by local school districts -- making their parents vulnerable to arrest and criminal charges.
The education department's Nanny State view is that parents may be allowed by the government to "supplement" their own children's education with tutoring at home, but "not substitute the education with uncredentialed home instruction." Local districts are following the cue. Sonoma County and San Diego school officials are distributing memos that declare home schooling illegal.
As I've said many times before, there's nothing like stiff competition to bring out the worst in government. Nowhere does this prove more true than in the battle between home-schooling parents and public school bureaucrats. More than 1.2 million children now call mom and dad their controlling educational authorities. Their overwhelming success -- in academic competition, on national tests, and in college -- poses a mounting threat to the government-run education monopoly and to the public school teachers' unions.
Despite abominably low test scores, enormous waste, unsafe classrooms and administrative incompetence, the public schools have remained a hallowed and untouchable fixture. How dare "uncredentialed" parents rise up in revolt? How dare they demand excellence, discipline, and a curriculum that reflects their values and love of country?
Mocking home schoolers as fringe radicals and religious extremists, meddling with their teaching materials, and forcing them to beg public school officials for permission to educate their own children wasn't enough to defeat the growing movement. So now California's educracy has adopted a new motto: If you can't beat 'em, criminalize 'em.
These bully tactics are bound to backfire in California and the rest of the country as the public school system's incompetence continues to be laid bare. As California wages its war on "unqualified" parents, a new report by the Washington, D.C.-based Education Trust reported this week that one-fourth of all secondary school classes are taught by public school teachers untrained in the class subject. It's a problem that hasn't improved for nearly a decade.
The researchers examined whether classes in four core subjects -- English, math, science and social studies -- were assigned to a teacher who lacked a college major or minor in that field or a related field. Nationally, 24.2 percent of classes were taught by such unqualified teachers. In California, 27 percent of classes were taught by the untrained. Twelve states had more than 30 percent of classes fitting that category. Five states -- Arizona, Delaware, Louisiana, New Mexico and Tennessee -- averaged more than one-third.
Among those hurt the most by this trend: poor and minority students. In schools that serve mostly poor students, the study found, nearly twice as many courses are taught by out-of-field teachers as in schools with few poor students. In schools that mostly serve minority students, 29 percent of classes were taught by unqualified teachers, compared with 21 percent for schools that have low minority enrollments.
Our public schools are filled with substandard math teachers who never took math in college, French teachers lecturing about biology, art teachers masquerading as history teachers, and other instructors who have absolutely no expert knowledge or intellectual curiosity about the subjects they've been assigned to teach. This is a system whose first priority is self-preservation of its tax-subsidized employees, not academic enlightenment of its captive charges.
And they dare to accuse home-schooling parents of educational malpractice?
Reminds me of my 7th grade history class which was taught by a Home Ec teacher. She told the class that WWI was started when Germany invaded Poland. I pointed out that there was no Poland when WWI started, and was told I was wrong and be quiet.
The teacher (a PHD in education), said that when a liquid is heated it will always turn to a gas, and up went my hand.
"what about an egg?" I said respectfully.
He thought for a few seconds then told me that I had no business being so disrespectful, and sent me to the principals office.
I know now that a different reaction occurs when you heat an egg so no physics flames please, but at the time it was an innocent question posed by a 14 year old. He didn't know, so I wasn't supposed to ask.
Thanks NEA.
-Bec who was "taught" Algebra in high school by a football coach.
Second link, below, for more on this.
Congressman Billybob
I have a sister-in-law, credentialed by Missouri, who is one of the biggest airheads I've ever met. Someone here on FR made the observation that it's rare to hold an intelligent conversation with a public school teacher. Personally, when talking to public school teachers (dippy elementary school teachers), I count the number of times they use the phrase "lesson plan." It's funny (and sad and despicable) that all conversations approaching intelligent discourse immediately fall back into the "I had a lesson plan once about [something irrelevant]."
Will the FedGov under the direction of Bush step in to protect the common-law rights of parents from the tyranny of the State?
If not, will parents with homeschoolers begin to leave the state in droves? (I think yes)
Will the state child-protection agencies then obtain warrants for the prosecution of parents who want to leave because they're placing their children at-risk, and skirting the CA law?
Will there be a lot of folks doing the "von Trapp" over the Sierra Nevadas, chased by truant officers and community police?
Could happen!
Wow!
Bush and Ashcroft could put a quick kabosh on this foolishness: I think, under the 14th Amendment and precedent of 2000 years of Common Law, there's a clear violation to be addressed. Will they do the right thing? Or are they too busy protecting us from Arab terrorists to give it a thought?
We can settle for nothing less than the elimination of the Department of Education and completely localized school choice for the future of our country.
Bush has a 21st Century Workforce that will need even more borderline-illiterate, docile, cheap serfs who shut up and do what their manager tells them to do. When he says "Leave No Child Alone," I'm inclined to believe he means exactly what he says.
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